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I wish she’d had the chance to find the friendship she seems to have with Ivy while she was alive. At least she’s been able to form that kind of bond before she’s passed away completely.
With just a couple more steps, Ivy notices me approaching. Her head snaps around, her hood sliding back over her pale amber hair.
When she’s looking right at me, it’s impossible for me to see anyone but the woman in front of me. The woman who’s captured so much of my attention she lingers in my mind even when she isn’t around.
Ivy’s expression softens a little when she sees it’s me, but tension lingers in the set of her mouth. Over the past few weeks, I’d mostly wonmyway past the instinctive wariness in her bright blue eyes, but the incident in the tower has brought it back.
I stop a few stalls away and reach to give my favorite mare, Pepper, a pat in welcome. “Taming that horse might be your greatest accomplishment.”
Ivy relaxes more at my teasing tone. She gives Toast one more scratch under his chin and steps back. “I don’t think anyone really gave him a chance before.”
I can’t help thinking of how much that remark could apply to her own situation.
The urge runs through my body to walk right up to her, wrap my arms around her, and tell her that she’s still got me on her side. That she never needed to earn a chance to begin with, in my opinion.
I hold myself where I am instead. I’m not sure she’d welcome the embrace, let alone believe me, and I can hardly blame her for that.
It isn’t as if I was free of doubts when we first came around the top of the All-Giver’s tower and saw her summoning vines at her feet. I make a career out of seeing the best in people—I’m aware that my judgment isn’t infallible.
But with every word she’s said since, every emotion that’s played across her face and colored her voice, it’s become increasingly clear that she’s still the woman I found myself drawn to from the start. Still just as sharp and bold and kind as ever.
Of course, she might not want my affection regardless of whether she believes in it. Some part of me thought—some part of mehoped—that the deeper fondness kindling inside me had sparked inside her too.
From the way she reacted after our last intimate moment, though, it was nothing more than casual pleasure to her. Which was all I’d offered anyway.
All I’m meant to offer.
I allow myself to take a single step closer, studying the interplay of reactions I receive. A faint flush colors her cheeks, but her posture goes slightly rigid as if she’s bracing herself to flee.
She’s grappling with some conflict within herself, and I can’t say what it even is. Do I stir up feelings in her that she’s feeling awkward about? Is she afraid I’m going to push for more than she actually wants?
Another impulse itches at me—to tap into my gift, to find out how I could make Ivy happiest—but I quash it. It feels like too much of an invasion of her privacy now.
And just because something would make her happy in the moment, that doesn’t mean it’s what she’d actually appreciate in the long run.
So I stay where I am, but I dig into the pocket of my trousers. I can give her one thing I expect she’ll enjoy.
I retrieve the item I’ve been carrying around waiting for a moment like this and hold out the knife to her grip-first, my fingers around the slim hilt. “I managed to pick this up in the tower while we were leaving. It’s been cleaned… I thought you might want it back.”
The way Ivy’s eyes light up makes my heart skip a beat. She steps forward and plucks the knife out of my hand as if she’s afraid it might be a trap.
As she gazes down at it, a grin stretches across her face. “It’s my favorite one. I thought it was gone for good.”
She lifts her gaze to meet mine again, the wariness still there but faded. “Thank you.”
I return her grin. “I would have given it back earlier, but I wasn’t sure how Stavros would react if I attempted it in front of him.”
Ivy gives a dry laugh. “Yes, he wouldn’t want me getting even more dangerous.”
She bends down to slide the knife into one of the boots she’s wearing, mostly hidden beneath the rippling skirt of her dress.
When she straightens up again, her voice turns tentative. “Can I ask you kind of a strange question? There aren’t a whole lot of people around here Icanask.”
The fact that she’s willing to turn to me for any help at all brings a glow of warmth into my chest.
I spread my arms. “Be my guest. Indulge your curiosity.”
Ivy glances around the stable, confirming that we’re alone here. There’s no sound but the shifting of the horses in their stalls.
